Jar lifting tools allow one to transfer extremely hot jars while, for example, engaged in home canning. The presently disclosed jar lifter includes several improvements over conventional jar lifter designs.
One improvement is a spring-loaded center hinge feature. This enhances the gripping function by ensuring jar transfer is achieved using only one hand. As a user squeezes inward on the handles, a spring gradually applies increased back pressure to the user's hand and in turn reduces the feel that the lifter will close freely or simply by gravity alone. The hinge spring keeps the jar lifter in an open position while not in use making it easy for users to stand the tool upright on a countertop. Existing jar lifting products can be difficult to stand up. The hinge spring also enhances the feeling of security and agility when working around boiling water used in canning and sterilizing.
Another improvement includes a limit angle stop feature between a pair of pivoting levers. This prevents the jar lifter from opening up too far (beyond one's grip). Excessively wide open handles significantly increase the difficulty of using the tool. The jar lifter is designed with grips for use with both regular and wide mouth jars. This feature provides a range of motion ensuring both types of jars can be picked up and transferred with little effort.
Another improvement resides in the frame and cast structure of the lifter. In existing jar lifter designs, the frame has often been formed as a closed loop bent wire rod design. For existing lifters, frame fabrication begins by taking a long steel rod and bending four corners to create a rectangle. The two free ends of the rod are then fused together to create a closed loop. The presently disclosed jar lifter has an open loop design with two free legs on each side of a handle manufactured by casting in a mold and made from cast aluminum. The handle and legs are light weight and very strong.
Another improvement comes from the design of the glass-to-jar lifter interface or “grip.” The bottom free ends of legs of the aluminum frame are left open and an arched grip formed of flexible rubber is over-molded between the free end posts to create a flexible connection. By employing this design, a user can engage a jar with the grips and squeeze the handles to elastically stretch the rubber form around a jar's neck to enhance the grip and increase gripping surface contact around the jar. The bottom of the rubber form is concave or upwardly arched to match the outer surface contours of many canning jars. This helps to center the rubber form around the neck of a jar.
Still another improvement is found in the handles. The handles are formed with an ergonomic geometry of soft rubber, which provides a pleasant and secure grip. Contoured rubber recesses molded over the aluminum handles help to comfortably center a user's fingers on the handles. A central recess receives a middle finger and a pair of adjacent recesses receive one's index and ring finger.
In the various views of the drawings, like referenced characters designate like or similar parts.